What It Does

Tracery tracks colored regions in your footage automatically. Pick a color, and the plugin follows it frame by frame without setting a single keyframe. It then generates overlays on top: bounding boxes, coordinate text, connection lines between tracked points, center markers, and directional arrows. The system handles up to 512 objects per layer, and you can stack layers for more.

This matters for motion graphics that need to respond to footage, like tracking diagrams, UI elements that follow movement, or abstract visuals built from color data in your video.

Key Features

Color keying with threshold and blur controls. Isolate specific hues and adjust sensitivity. The plugin includes a mask preview so you can see what’s being tracked before generating overlays.

Bounding boxes that automatically fit around tracked regions. Customize borders, fill opacity, and corner segments. Boxes resize and move as the tracked area changes.

Text coordinates display X/Y position data for each tracked object. Useful for technical diagrams or HUD-style graphics where you need precise numerical readouts.

Center markers place reference points (dot, plus, or cross shapes) at the centroid of each region. Size and color are adjustable.

Connection lines draw paths between tracked points using four algorithms:

  • Sequential chains points in order or creates loops.
  • Star connects all points to the first (topmost) object.
  • Full mesh links every point to every other point.
  • MST (Minimum Spanning Tree) uses Prim’s algorithm to create the shortest total connection distance, forming an optimal tree structure.

Arrows add directional indicators with controls for size, angle, position along the line, and fill.

Multi-threaded rendering with quality presets lets you balance speed and accuracy. All processing happens natively in After Effects with no external apps.

Who It’s For

Motion designers building data-driven graphics, VFX artists tracking multiple elements without manual keyframing, and anyone creating abstract visuals from footage. If you need to generate HUDs, tracking diagrams, or stylized overlays that respond to moving objects, this handles the tracking and visualization in one tool.

Pricing

$59.99 for a single-user license. One-time purchase, no subscription. Trial version available.